Tate

The Tate is the United Kingdom's national museum of British and Modern Art. It is a group of four art galleries in England:

• Tate Britain (opened in 1897 and renamed in 2000)
• Tate Liverpool (1988),
• Tate St Ives (1993)
• Tate Modern (2000).

There is a website, Tate Online (1998). It is administered as a quango (a non-departmental public body).Tate is used as the name for the corporation which was started as The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery.

The gallery was started in 1897, as the National Gallery of British Art. When its role was changed to include Modern Art it was renamed the Tate Gallery after Henry Tate. The Tate Gallery was first started in a building at Millbank, London on the Embankment. In 2000, the Tate Gallery split its collection into four museums:

• Tate Britain (in the original building) displays the collection of British art from 1500 to the present day;
• Tate Modern, also in London, houses the Tate's collection of British and International Modern and Contemporary art from 1900 to the present day.
• Tate Liverpool, in Liverpool has the same purpose as Tate Modern but on a smaller scale, and
• Tate St Ives displays modern and contemporary art by artists who have a connection with the local area. All four museums share the Tate Collection.

One of the Tate's most publicised art events is the awarding of the annual Turner Prize, which takes place at Tate Britain.